Albany outsiders become insiders

Major wins in Albany Democratic primaries pave way for progressives

By Jordan Carleo-Evangelist

Updated 7:32 am, Thursday, September 12, 2013

Photo: Lori Van Buren

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Supporters cheer as Kathy Sheehan arrives to the stage to deliver a speech at the Albany Pump Station after winning the Albany mayoral primary race on Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2013 in Albany, N.Y. Sheehan was running against Corey Ellis. (Lori Van Buren / Times Union) less

Supporters cheer as Kathy Sheehan arrives to the stage to deliver a speech at the Albany Pump Station after winning the Albany mayoral primary race on Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2013 in Albany, N.Y. Sheehan was running ... more

Photo: Lori Van Buren

Albany outsiders become insiders

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Albany

City Treasurer Kathy Sheehan's resounding victory in Tuesday's Democratic mayoral primary overshadowed a broader story about the city's political present and future that played out further down the ballot.

Sheehan not only swamped her opponent, former Councilman Corey Ellis, by an unofficial 37-point margin; she also watched as allies racked up wins in primaries across the city, laying the groundwork for a progressive coalition to move from the margins of city government to the seat of power.

In the only other citywide race on the ballot, Sheehan ally Darius Shahinfar also won big in his bid to succeed her as city treasurer.

"It's not all of a sudden that yesterday we beat the great big monster," one longtime city progressive activist said of the county's once ironclad Democratic machine. "Despite the fact that great big monster has been gone for 20 years or more, the progressives were never able to do anything with the vacuum."

That is, perhaps, until Tuesday.

"The party in and of itself has shifted," said Sheehan, who was endorsed by the county Democratic Committee but beat a party-backed incumbent to become treasurer four years ago. "When you look at where the support is and you look at who is able to energize a base and get them to the polls ... it was the group of candidates that, in prior races, would have been looked at as outsiders."

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All five Common Council candidates publicly endorsed by Sheehan — newcomers Dorcey Applyrs, Vivian Kornegay and Kelly Kimbrough and incumbents Cathy Fahey and Leah Golby — either won or were leading in their primaries Wednesday.

Kornegay held a 19-vote lead over incumbent Lester Freeman in the South End's 2nd Ward with as many as 36 absentee ballots to be counted.

Meanwhile, two other winners — Judd Krasher, who ousted one-term incumbent Anton Konev in the midtown 11th Ward, and Judy Doesschate in New Scotland Avenue's 9th Ward — are also progressives and potential Sheehan allies.

A third, Sam Coleman in West Hill's 5th Ward, was a close second in a four-way race that will be decided by absentee ballots next week. Mark Robinson leads Coleman by 14 votes with as many as 47 absentees ballots to be counted. Incumbent Jackie Jenkins-Cox was in third, 35 votes behind Robinson.

Sheehan stayed out of the 8th Ward primary between party-backed candidate Jack Flynn and Lenny Ricchiuti, in which Flynn was leading Ricchiuti by 50 votes with up to 114 absentee ballots to be counted.

But should she win in November, Sheehan said she hardly expects the council chamber to turn into an echo chamber.

"If I am successful, I will have a council that is progressive but that is going to question everything," she said. "It's not walking in with an immediate base of support. It's walking in with a base of people that are going to think independently."

One of her November rivals, Republican Jesse Calhoun, congratulated Sheehan on her win, but urged voters not to anoint her the winner despite her party's overwhelming enrollment advantage.

"It's a great time to see if we are choosing between ideas or choosing between horses," Calhoun said in a statement. "If it's more important to pick the favorite than it is to pick the one with the right ideas, then our democracy is in serious trouble."

Ellis, meanwhile, pledged to support Sheehan. The progressives' standard-bearer against Mayor Jerry Jennings in 2009, Ellis saw his support slip in a head-to-head race against Sheehan. Some of his supporters bristled when, despite his strong showing four years ago against the four-term incumbent, many progressives this year coalesced behind Sheehan.

"I'm hoping that people took away from the race that we're really going to have to look at how our city is going to look and function in the future. And with the fiscal challenges that are facing our city, we have to make sure that even with those challenges, every neighborhood has the ability to grow," Ellis said. "If one neighborhood is suffering and one neighborhood is not growing, it hurts the whole city."

Sheehan is also backed by Council President Pro Tem Richard Conti and Majority Leader Daniel Herring. If Tuesday's results hold, she could take office in January with a council that is two-thirds friendly.

"People want to see a more participatory democracy, more involvement in their city government. It's more of a ground-up rather than top-down government that we're going to have, and that's what people want," said Shahinfar, who defeated longtime County Legislator Gary Domalewicz. "Voters are excited for a new direction for Albany."

For months, Sheehan's Madison Avenue headquarters housed a voter database that also guided the council candidates she was backing, spreading the wealth of her well-funded campaign and stable of volunteers by helping them identify supporters and target likely primary voters.

While far from a new tactic, that level of coordinated campaigning across a half-dozen local contests may have been a first in the city.

Still, the system that helped drive those win did not reverse continued declines in Democratic turnout.

While an exact comparison is not yet possible, turnout preliminarily appears to have been down between 20 and 25 percent from 2009, which was itself down 43 percent from 1993. Roughly 10,600 — about 30 percent — of the Albany's 36,000 Democrats went to the polls Tuesday, though that figure does not include paper ballots that have yet to be counted.

Whether the drop-off was caused by the lack of a contentious campaign, foul weather, a late poll that showed Sheehan far ahead or some combination of factors, Sheehan called the trend troublesome.

"It concerns me politically, it concerns me as a leader, it concerns me as somebody who believes participatory government is important," she said. "We need everybody participating in order to move our city forward."